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Showing posts from October, 2010

Prospect Farm Harvest Fest is this weekend!!

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Soup cook-off judged by food smarties Brandon and Joe , raffle with many many great restaurants and food shops prizes, an off the hook bake sale. Yes that includes that zucchini bread recipe and banana chocolate chip cupcake recipe I talk so much about. Music from A Sunny Day in Glasgow and Spirit Family Reunion. Activities like Farm Jeopardy, tours, face painting, and so much more that my head hurts from remembering it all. Check out the event on Facebook or on the Huffington Post . Stop by and see what Prospect Farm has achieved in our first year. Its all free too! Prospect Farm Harvest Fest + Soup Cook-Off Saturday October 30th (rain date Oct. 31st) 11am - 4pm @ Prospect Farm located 1194 Prospect Ave btwn Seeley and Vanderbilt Sts, Brooklyn F or G train to Ft. Hamilton, exit towards Prospect Ave/Greenwood

Apple Pie Contest at Cortelyou Rd Farmers Market

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Almond Crust Apple Galette in the first morning light before the bake-off No one loses when you get to hang out eat 6 kinds of apple pie and discuss pastry with other serious bakers. This morning I entered the Coretlyou Rd Farmers Market Pie Bake-Off. I lost to Martha whose pie encompassed everything that is great about an apple pie, and by extension America. It was big, and pretty with leaf design top crust, hot out of the oven, sprinkled with sugar, and contained the right mix of sweet, cinnamon-y and firm baked apples. Martha wise used Northern Spys while I chose granny smith and winesaps. I entered a mildly pretentious French inspired Almond Crust Apple Galette . Basically a mix of a Jacques Pepin/ Juila Childs recipe apple filling apples, butter, salt, nutmeg, dried apricots, and booze. That pie had flavor and characterand was, dare I say, handsome. My crust was super butter flaky like a croissant styled crust. I'm proud to have shared it with Ditmas Park. My camera bat

Ditmas Park CSA Week 18

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Going going gone is the sun when I get back to Brooklyn after work. Its fall, and I'm okay with that if it means squash, hot peppers, and apples. Imagine the possibilities just those 3 ingredients promise. I'm waaaaaay to busy preparing for next week's Prospect Farm fundraiser to cook much. I will likely steam and roast it all and serve myself a personal sized of autumn vegetable cornucopia. Week 18's CSA share 1 bunch parsley 1 bag arugula 2 onions 6 hot peppers 1 green pepper 5 apples 1 small bunch broccoli 1 eggplant 1 spaghetti squash 1 watermelon 8 medium to large potatoes 1/2 chicken, really cute and little 12 eggs

Proteins

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Bonus: Sardine and smoked fish tins have really awesome nostalgic packaging I don't post many meat recipes here. I don't cook much meat, but I am not a vegetarian. Far from it as a devout lamb lover. I consider myself a conscientious eater in the Mark Bittman line of thinking. In fact I think eating fish and animals is great. If meat is good enough for other animals, then its good enough for me. I've been eating low on the chain for the past 6 months with cured and smoked small fish. Why waste money on omega-3 fish oil capsules when you can make a meal out of the fish itself. Smoked fish also are high in calcium (fish bones baby!), iron, and protein There are hundreds upon hundreds of sardines available at my local grocery, Golden Farm on Church Ave. Herring is my favorite, followed by canned octopus ( pulpo in garlic sauce) and sardines. Sardines go two ways, mushy with a horrible gut churning rotten fish smell to a paletteable firm and tender. I've had plenty of

Prospect Farm Harvest Fest + Soup Cook-Off

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Prospect Farm is a volunteer-run urban farm near my section of Brooklyn. We are almost finished with our first season, and I've whipped together a little fundraiser to get the neighborhood together to celebrate. Saturday October 30 th come out for games, music, food, tours and information, raffle, and the grand soup cook-off. Cook-Off contenders will ladle up their best soups for Brandon Maya and Joe Brancaccio to decide a winner. To enter the cook-off email me at prospectfarmbk@gmail.com Raffle includes prizes from Brancaccio Food Shop, Crossroads Cafe, The Double Windsor, The Great Green Store, Juice Box Wines, Oak and Iris Cafe, Levy ' s Unique New York Tours, Namaste Yoga of Kensington , Sycamore Flowershop ,Tally Ho Craft Beer, Third Root Community Health, Thistle Tavern. Read more info about Prospect Farm here.

Roasting an Entire Pumpkin

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To be roasted in the spirit of the season Pumpkin goods are the reason behind my favorite season. Pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin polenta , pumpkin pancakes, braised pumpkin with short ribs, pumpkin seeds. I could eat pumpkin flavored anything, everyday. A few years back (putting together a Thanksgiving abroad in Glasgow Scotland) I discovered that it is more labor intensive and expensive to roast a pumpkin then to buy a can. Pumpkins have high water content, and yield less per pound with more effort. Nonetheless when Poorfarm farm brought its perfectly orange bounty to a Brooklyn corner near me I could not resist. When shopping for a roasting pumpkin look for smaller varieties or a "Sugar Pumpkin " which is grown for baking. You don't want a jack-o-lantern. Tough, watery, and stringy. There are hundreds of other kinds of pumpkins , and you can usually get all kinds of gems at the farmer's market. I often roast Hubbard , but

Pee Wee with Some Smoked Meat and Pickles

See it!